Poland's Holocaust: Ethnic Strife, Collaboration with Occupying Forces and Genocide in the Second Republic, 1918-1947 [Paperback]

Tadeusz Piotrowski (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 9, 2007

With the end of World War I, a new Republic of Poland emerged on the maps of Europe, made up of some of the territory from the first Polish Republic, including Wolyn and Wilno, and significant parts of Belarus, Upper Silesia, Eastern Galicia, and East Prussia. The resulting conglomeration of ethnic groups left many substantial minorities wanting independence. The approach of World War II provided the minorities leaders a new opportunity in their nationalist movements, and many sided with one or the other of Poland's two enemies-the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany-in hopes of achieving their goals at the expense of Poland and its people. Based on primary and secondary sources in numerous languages (including Polish, German, Ukrainian, Belorussian, Russian and English), this work examines the roles of the ethnic minorities in the collapse of the Republic and in the atrocities that occurred under the occupying troops. The Polish government's response to mounting ethnic tensions in the prewar era and its conduct of the war effort are also examined.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Extensive index, table of abbreviations, appendix, and profuse documentation. All college and public libraries --Choice

Solid…informative…detailed…the author is to be commended for synthesizing an enormous amount of information…valuable --Journal of European Area Studies

Most welcome.... Professor Piotrowski's study is a journey of discovery, told in the restrained language of a scholar who is less concerned with espousing philosophical viewpoints than recreating as accurately as possible the roles of several ethnic groups in the atrocities committed during Poland's occupation...a landmark study...essential --New Horizon

About the Author

Tadeusz Piotrowski is a professor of sociology at the University of New Hampshire in Manchester where he also teaches courses in anthropology and the Holocaust, and where he served as the Associate Dean of Faculty. He has received many awards including the Outstanding Associate Professor Award. He is also the author of The Polish Deportees of World War II (2004), The Indian Heritage of New Hampshire and Northern New England (2002), Vengeance of the Swallows (1995, winner of the Cultural Achievement Award from the American Council for Polish Culture) and Genocide and Rescue in Wolyn (2000). He lives in Manchester, New Hampshire.

Product Details

• Paperback: 451 pages
• Publisher: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers (January 9, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786429135
• ISBN-13: 978-0786429134
• Product Dimensions: 9.8 x 6.9 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,130,266 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Tells the Untold Story of the Holocaust, November 9, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Poland's Holocaust: Ethnic Strife, Collaboration with Occupying Forces and Genocide in the Second Republic, 1918-1947 (Hardcover)

Piotrowski masterfully discusses and documents many topics usually avoided in traditional Holocaust education. These include: the collaboration of Jews with both Nazis and Communists, the murder of 3 million Polish gentiles by the Germans, and the deportation of 1.5 million Polish gentiles to Siberia by the Russians (where most of them died--not in gas chambers, but from disease and starvation). Must read for anyone interested in then FULL account of the Holocaust.

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Comprehensive, November 17, 2002

By 

"markannette" (Ontario, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Poland's Holocaust: Ethnic Strife, Collaboration with Occupying Forces and Genocide in the Second Republic, 1918-1947 (Hardcover)

If you are looking for a comprehensive overview of the atrocities committed on Polish territory during the 1939 to 1945 period you could not do too much better than Piotrowski's book. Those that don't like it (see above) are not interested in the facts coming out. The German's were not the only group committing atrocities and this book meticulously sets out the full narrative. My mother and father both lived through these times and were witness to many of these events. My mother was deported to Kazakhstan by the Russians and her father was taken away and murdered. This is one of the few books that tackles this crime. Much like the murder of Polish officers at Katyn woods which the Russians recently ackowledged, the Soviet "ethnic cleansing" of eastern Poland is a story that is slowly emerging from unneath the fog of Communist lies and deception. For those researching this topic Allen Paul's 1991 book, "Katyn-Stalin's Massacre and the Seeds of Polish Resurrection" is also a "must have".

57 of 67 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding and Balanced Source of Seldom-Heard Information, April 24, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Poland's Holocaust: Ethnic Strife, Collaboration with Occupying Forces and Genocide in the Second Republic, 1918-1947 (Hardcover)

This book has everything! If you think, for instance, that Poles refuse to ever admit any wrongdoing, you will be disappointed, as Piotrowski has an entire chapter on Polish collaborators (along with corresponding chapters on the collaborators of other nationalities). He also discusses the genocidal murder of some 100,000 innocent Polish civilians by the UPA (Ukrainian Insurgent Army) during World War 2. To say that this was a "war of liberation" of "Ukrainian lands" from "Polish colonialism" is a falsification of history. Fact is, these lands have had a mixed Polish-Ukrainian population for centuries, if not from antiquity. And to say that this was retaliation for the treatment of Ukrainians in interwar Poland is ludicrous in the extreme. In fact, the grand total of Ukrainian nationalists put to death during Polish rule (for acts of murder) comes out to a grand total of 29. And acts of Polish discrimination against individual Ukrainians have no moral or tactical parallel whatsoever with the systematic murder of 100,000 Polish civilians by Ukrainian fascists.